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Adventure Time
Adventure Time1 is an American animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada) and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio)—a dog with the magical power to change shape and size at will. Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo. Throughout the show, they interact with the other main characters Princess Bubblegum (voiced by Hynden Walch), The Ice King (voiced by Tom Kenny), and Marceline the Vampire Queen (voiced by Olivia Olson). The series is based on a short produced for Nicktoons and Frederator Studios' animation incubator series Random! Cartoons. After the short became a viral hiton the Internet, Cartoon Network commissioned a full-length series that previewed on March 11, 2010, and officially premiered on April 5, 2010. The series was inspired by the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons and video games. It is produced using hand-drawn animation; episodes are created through the process of storyboarding and each episode takes roughly eight to nine months to complete. Multiple episodes are worked on concurrently. The Adventure Time cast record their lines in group recordings and the series regularly employs guest actors for minor and recurring characters. Each Adventure Time episode runs for about eleven minutes; pairs of episodes are often telecast to fill half-hour program slots. Six seasons of the program have been completed, and the series has been renewed for a seventh season—which debuted on November 2, 2015, and will contain a special mini-series—as well as an eighth season. As of October 2015, a feature-length film is in pre-production. Since its debut, Adventure Time has been a ratings success for Cartoon Network; the highest-rated episodes have attracted over 3 million viewers. The show has received positive reviews from critics and—despite being aimed primarily at children—has developed a following among teenagers and adults. Adventure Time has won awards including four Primetime Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, two Annie Awards, two British Academy Children's Awards, a Motion Picture Sound Editors Award, a Pixel Award, and a Kerrang! Award. The series has also been nominated for three Critics' Choice Television Awards, two Annecy Festival Awards, a TCA Award, and a Sundance Film Festival Award, among others. A comic book spin-off based on the series won an Eisner Award and two Harvey Awards. The series has also inspired various clothing items and related merchandise, video games, comic books, and DVD compilations. Premise Main Artical: List of Adventure Time characters Adventure Time follows the adventures of a boy, Finn the Human, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake the Dog, who has magical powers to change shape and to change size at will. The show's creator Pendleton Ward describes Finn as a "fiery little kid with strong morals"; Jake is based on Bill Murray's character in Meatballs, Tripper Harrison .4 Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo, where they interact with the show's other main characters: Princess Bubblegum (voiced by Hynden Walch), the sovereign of the Candy Kingdom; the Ice King(voiced by Tom Kenny), a menacing but largely misunderstood ice wizard; and Marceline the Vampire Queen (voiced by Olivia Olson), a thousand-year-old vampire and rock music enthusiast.5 = e'' = This article is about the 2010 animated TV series. For other uses, see Adventure 'Adventure Time'1 is an American animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada) and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio)—a dog with the magical power to change shape and size at will. Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo. Throughout the show, they interact with the other main characters Princess Bubblegum (voiced by Hynden Walch), The Ice King (voiced by Tom Kenny), and Marceline the Vampire Queen (voiced by Olivia Olson). The series is based on a short produced for Nicktoons and Frederator Studios' animation incubator series ''Random! Cartoons. After the short became a viral hiton the Internet, Cartoon Network commissioned a full-length series that previewed on March 11, 2010, and officially premiered on April 5, 2010. The series was inspired by the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons and video games. It is produced using hand-drawn animation; episodes are created through the process of storyboarding and each episode takes roughly eight to nine months to complete. Multiple episodes are worked on concurrently. The Adventure Time cast record their lines in group recordings and the series regularly employs guest actors for minor and recurring characters. Each Adventure Time episode runs for about eleven minutes; pairs of episodes are often telecast to fill half-hour program slots. Six seasons of the program have been completed, and the series has been renewed for a seventh season—which debuted on November 2, 2015, and will contain a special mini-series—as well as an eighth season. As of October 2015, a feature-length film is in pre-production. Since its debut, Adventure Time has been a ratings success for Cartoon Network; the highest-rated episodes have attracted over 3 million viewers. The show has received positive reviews from critics and—despite being aimed primarily at children—has developed a following among teenagers and adults. Adventure Time has won awards including four Primetime Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, two Annie Awards, two British Academy Children's Awards, a Motion Picture Sound Editors Award, a Pixel Award, and a Kerrang! Award. The series has also been nominated for three Critics' Choice Television Awards, two Annecy Festival Awards, a TCA Award, and a Sundance Film Festival Award, among others. A comic book spin-off based on the series won an Eisner Award and two Harvey Awards. The series has also inspired various clothing items and related merchandise, video games, comic books, and DVD compilations. Development Concept and creation Main article: Adventure Time (pilot) Pendleton Ward, the creator of Adventure Time. According to series creator Pendleton Ward, the show's style was influenced by his time attending the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and his experiences working as a writer and storyboard artist on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. In an interview with Animation World Network, Ward said he strives to combine the series' subversive humor with "beautiful" moments, using Hayao Miyazaki's film My Neighbor Totoro as inspiration.4 Ward has also named Home Movies and Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist as influences, largely because both shows are "relaxing" and feature "conversational dialogue that feels natural and not over the top nor cartoony and shrill".6 The show began as a stand-alone animated short film that ran for seven minutes. Ward created the short almost entirely by himself, and concluded its production in early 2006.7 The film was first broadcast on Nicktoons Network on January 11, 2007,78 and was re-aired as part of Frederator Studios' anthology show Random! Cartoons on December 7, 2008.910 After its initial release, the short video became a viral hit on the Internet.411Frederator Studios then pitched an Adventure Time''series to Nicktoons Network, but the network rejected it twice.12 Eventually, the studio's rights to commission a full series expired, and Frederator—the short's production animation studio—pitched it to other channels.13 The studio approached Cartoon Network, which said it would be willing to produce a series if Ward could prove the short could be expanded into a full series while maintaining elements of the original's pilot.14 Rob Sorcher, the chief content officer at Cartoon Network, was influential in getting the network to take a chance on the show; he recognized the series as "something that felt really indie ... comic book-y and really new".13 Patrick McHale was the creative director of ''Adventure Time for the first two seasons. Ward quickly rethought the concept of the pilot; he wanted a potential series to be "fully realized", rather than be characterized by the "pre-school vibe" that permeated the original film.4 Ward's college friends Patrick McHale and Adam Muto helped him produce a rough storyboard that featured Finn and Princess Bubblegum going on a spaghetti-supper date.12Cartoon Network was not happy with this story and asked for another. Ward then created a storyboard for the episode "The Enchiridion!", which was his attempt to emulate the style of the original Nicktoons short. Cartoon Network approved the first season in September 2008, and "The Enchiridion!" was the first episode to enter into production.12141516 Ward and his production team began storyboarding episodes and writing plot outlines. Cartoon Network was still concerned about the direction of the new series. During the pitch of an episode titled "Brothers in Insomnia"—which was eventually scrapped—McHale said the room was filled with executives from Cartoon Network. The pitch went well; the production staff were soon inundated with questions about the stylistic nature of the series. Hoping to resolve these issues, Cartoon Network management hired three veteran animators who had worked on SpongeBob SquarePants: Derek Drymon (who served as executive producer for the first season of Adventure Time), Merriwether Williams (who served as head story editors for the show's first and second seasons), and Nick Jennings (who became the series' long-serving art director).17 Thurop Van Orman, the creator of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, was also hired to guide Ward and his staff for the first two seasons.18 One of the main changes from the pilot to the series was the emphasis placed on the background art. Dan "Ghostshrimp" James, a freelance illustrator who had also storyboarded on Flapjack, was tasked with designing the show's world; Ward told him to make the series look as though it took place "in a 'Ghostshrimp World'".419 James designed major locations, including Finn and Jake's home, the Candy Kingdom, and the Ice Kingdom.19 During the production of season one, Ward assembled a storyboarding team for the series. He was drawn to "younger, inexperienced people", and he used the Internet to help with his search. During this time, Phil Rynda, who worked as the series' lead character designer for two seasons, was hired.20 Production While many cartoons are based on script pitches to network executives, Cartoon Network allowed Adventure Time to "build their own teams organically" and communicate through the use of storyboards and animatics.5 Rob Sorcher said this novel approach was sanctioned because the company was dealing with "primarily visual people", and that by using storyboards the writers and artists could learn and grow "by actually doing the work".5Many of the series' artists have backgrounds in indie comics, and Pendleton Ward has called them "really smart, smartypants people" who were responsible for inserting weirder and spiritual ideas into the series during its third and later seasons.21 A storyboard panel drawn by Adam Muto for the episode "What Was Missing" showing action, dialogue, and sound effects. Adventure Time is a storyboard-driven series; the storyboard artists are also the writers, allowing them to draft the dialogue and the action. In an interview with The A.V. Club, Ward said the writing process for the show usually begins with the writers telling each other what they had done the previous week in an attempt to find something humorous to build from. He also said, "a lot of the time, if we're really stuck, we'll start saying everything that comes to our mind, which is usually the worst stuff, and then someone else will think that's terrible but it'll give him a better idea and the ball just starts rolling like that".22 Ward also said a major inspiration for the series is the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons of which many of the show's writers were fans. Because of the busy schedule of writing and coordinating a television series, they no longer had time to play the game. Ward said because the writers were too busy, they would attempt to write stories they would "want to be playing D&D with".22 Sometimes, the writers and storyboard artists convene and play writing games.23 One game is called exquisite corpse; one writer starts a story on a sheet of paper, which is then folded and another writer tries to finish it.2324Ward said, "the ideas are usually terrible".24Storyboard artist Cole Sanchez said episode scripts are either created by expanding the good ideas produced by these writing games, or are based upon an idea proposed by a storyboard artist in the hope it can be developed into an episode.23 After the writers pitch stories, the ideas are compiled onto a two-or-three-page outline that contain "the important beats".25 The episodes are then passed to storyboard artists who are given a week to "thumbnail a storyboard" and fill in the details complete with action, dialogue, and jokes.2526Ward and his creative directors then review the storyboard and make notes. The artists are then given another week to implement the notes and clean up the episode.26 Storyboard writing and revising can take up to a month. Following the revisions, the voices for the episode are recorded and an animatic is compiled to reduce the running time to the necessary 11 minutes. Prop, character, and background designers then create and clean up the designs. After this, the animation process begins.2728 The episodes' design and coloring are done in Burbank, California. Animation is handled in South Korea by either Rough Draft Korea or by Saerom Animation.282930 The crew of Adventure Time at the 74th Annual Peabody Awards Animating an episode can take between three and five months.2728 During this time, retakes, music scoring, and sound design are completed.27 Once the animation is finished, it is sent back to the United States where it is reviewed; the staff look for mistakes in the animation or "things that didn't animate the way staff intended".28 These problems are then fixed in Korea and the episode is finished.28 It takes between eight and nine months for each episode to be created; multiple episodes are worked on concurrently.222728 According to former lead character designer Phil Rynda, most pre-production is done in Photoshop. The animation is hand-drawn on paper then digitally composited.3132 Elements in some episodes—such as the second season entry "Guardians of Sunshine", which was partially rendered in 3-D to emulate the style of a video game—were not hand-drawn.31 The fifth-season episode "A Glitch is a Glitch" was written and directed by Irish filmmaker and writer David OReilly, and features his distinctive 3-D animation.33The sixth-season episode "Water Park Prank" features animation by David Ferguson.34 A stop-motion episode titled "Bad Jubies", led by Kirsten Lepore, is due for broadcast near the start of the show's seventh season.3536 Ward described the show as a "dark comedy" and said he enjoys experiencing ambivalent emotions, such as the feeling of being "happy and scared at the same time".37 Executive producer Fred Seibertcompared the show's animation style to that of Felix the Cat and various Max Fleischer cartoons, but said its world was also inspired by Dungeons and Dragons and video games.38 Ward intends the show's world to have a physical logic rather than "cartoony slapstick". Although magic exists in the story, the show's writers try to create an internal consistency in the characters' interactions with the world.438 In the United States, the series is rated TV-PG;39 Ward has said he does not want to push the show's PG rating. He said, "I've never really even thought about the rating ... we don't like stuff that's overly gross. We like cute stuff and nice things."26 In an interview with Rolling Stone, Ward said he had stepped down as series showrunner sometime during the fifth season in favor of Muto. He said, as a naturally introverted person, he found deal with people every day exhausting. Until late 2014, Ward continued to work on the series as a storyboard artist and storyline writer.40 After November 2014, he stopped writing episode stories and focused on producing a live-action Adventure Time movie.4041 Cast The series employs the voice acting talents of John DiMaggio (left) and Jeremy Shada (right), who voice Jake and Finn, respectively. Voice actors for the series include: Jeremy Shada(who portrays Finn the Human), John DiMaggio (who portrays Jake the Dog), Tom Kenny (who plays the Ice King), Hynden Walch (who voices Princess Bubblegum), and Olivia Olson (who voices Marceline the Vampire Queen). Ward provides voices for several minor characters and Lumpy Space Princess. Former storyboard artist Niki Yang voices the sentient video game console BMO in English, and Jake's girlfriend Lady Rainicorn in Korean.42 Polly Lou Livingston, a friend of Pendleton Ward's mother Bettie Ward, plays the voice of the small elephant named Tree Trunks.4344 The Adventure Time cast members record their lines together in group recordings rather than individually, with the goal of recording natural-sounding dialogue. Hynden Walch has described these group recordings as being akin to "doing a play reading—a really, really out there play".45 The series regularly employs guest actors for minor and recurring characters.46 The crew members cast people they are interested in working with. In a panel, both Adam Muto and Kent Osborne said the Adventure Time crew has been attempting to cast the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Office as various characters.47 Setting and mythology The show is set in a fictional continent called the "Land of Ooo",48 in a post-apocalyptic future about a thousand years after a nuclear holocaust called the "Great Mushroom War".49 According to Ward, the show takes place "after the bombs have fallen and magic has come back into the world".50 Before the series was fully developed, Ward's intended the Land of Ooo to be simply "magical". After the broadcast of "Business Time", in which an iceberg containing reanimated business men floats to the surface of a lake, the show became post-apocalyptic; Ward said the production crew "just ran with it".37 Ward later described the setting as "candyland on the surface and dark underneath",5 and said he had never intended the Mushroom War and the post-apocalyptic elements to be "hit over the head in the show".51 He limited it to "cars buried underground in the background other elements that do not raise any eyebrows".51 Ward has said the post-apocalyptic elements of the series were influenced by the 1979 film Mad Max.37 Kenny called the way in which the elements are worked into the plot "very fill-in-the-blanks", and DiMaggio said, "it's been obvious the Land of Ooo has some issues".51 The series has a canonical mythology—an overarching plot and backstory—that is expanded upon in various episodes.5253 The backstory mainly involves the Mushroom War, the origin of the series' principal antagonist the Lich, and the backstories of several of the series' principal and recurring characters.525354 Ward has said the details behind the Mushroom War and the series' dark mythology form "a story worth telling", and that he feels the show will "save it and continue to dance around how heavy the back-history of Ooo is".55 Title sequence and music When Ward was developing the show's title sequences, the rough draft version consisted of quick shots and vignettes that were "just sort of crazy, nonsensical", which alluded to the show's theme of quirky adventures.26 These drafts included "the characters ... just punching random ghosts and monsters, jumping through anything and everything and there were a bunch of atomic bombs at the end of it".26 Ward later called this version "really silly".26He sent the draft to Cartoon Network; they did not enjoy it and wanted something more graphical like the introduction to The Brady Bunch. Inspired by the title sequesnces of The Simpsons and Pee-wee's Playhouse, Ward developed a new title sequence that featured a panning sweep of the Land of Ooo while a synthesizer note rose slowly until the main theme was played. Ward's draft for this idea was handed to layout animators and the sequence evolved; Ward added "silly character stuff on top of his pass", and Pat McHale worked on the Ice King's shot and gave him a "high school yearbook" smile. The crew also struggled to get the shadows in the shot featuring Marceline correct.26 After the panning sweep, the sequence cuts to the theme song as shots of Finn and Jake adventuring are shown. For this part of the sequence, Ward was inspired by the "simple" aspects of the introduction of the 2007 comedy film Superbad. When the theme mentions "Jake the Dog" and "Finn the Human", the characters' names are displayed next to their heads, with a solid color in the background.26 The sequence was finalized immediately before the series was aired.26 The theme song features Ward on ukelele. The show's eponymous theme song is performed by Ward, who is accompanied by a ukulele. The theme first appeared in the pilot episode; in this version Ward was accompanied by an acoustic guitar. In the version used in the series, Ward sings in a noticeably higher register; this is because Ward felt it was necessary to match his singing with the higher key of the ukelele.26 The finalized version of the theme song was originally supposed to be a temporary version. Ward said, "I recorded the lyrics for the opening title in the animatics room where we have this little crummy microphone just so that we could add it to the titles and submit it to the network. Later, we tried re-recording it and I didn't like it ... I only liked the temp one!"26 According to Ward, much of the series' music has "hiss and grit" because one of the show's original composers, Casey James Basichis, "lives in a pirate ship he's built inside of an apartment and you can hear floorboards squeak and lots of other weird sounds".26 As the show progressed, Basichis's friend Tim Kiefer joined the show as an additional composer.56 The two currently work together on its music.57 The show's title sequence and theme song have mostly stayed consistent throughout its run, with two exceptions. During the Fionna and Cake episodes, all of the characters featured in the sequence are gender-bent and the theme is sung by former storyboard revisionist Natasha Allegri.58 The introduction of the upcoming mini-series Stakes''places most of the emphasis on Marceline, and the theme song is sung by Olivia Olson.59 The series regularly features songs and musical numbers. Many of the cast members—including Shada, Kenny, and Olson—sing their characters' songs.456061 Characters often express their emotions in song; examples of this include Marceline's song "I'm Just Your Problem" and Finn's "All Gummed Up Inside".6263 Although the background music for the series is composed by Basichis and Kiefer, the songs sung by characters are often written by the storyboard artists.6465 For instance, the "Fry Song" was written by storyboard artist Rebecca Sugar, who storyboarded its parent episode "It Came from the Nightosphere".65Frederator, Seibert's production company, often posted demos and full versions of songs sung by the characters.6667 The show rarely but occasionally refers to popular music. For instance, Johnny Cash's 1969 single "A Boy Named Sue" was originally intended to be featured in the third season episode "Dad's Dungeon"; the 1982 song "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" by Gary Portnoy—which was used as the theme of the sitcom ''Cheers—plays a pivotal role in the fifth season episode "Simon & Marcy"; Tree Trunks sings a karaoke version of the song "(I'd Like to Get You on a) Slow Boat to China" in the fifth season episode "Bad Timing" and the Frank Zappa album Apostrophe (') appears in the same episode; and The Shirelles's single "Mama Said" appears in the seventh season episode of the same name.5468697071 Furthermore, the television advertisement for the sixth season premiere "Wake Up" and "Escape from the Citadel" featured the song "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin.72 Broadcast Episodes Main article: List of Adventure Time episodes Each Adventure Time episode is about eleven minutes in length; pairs of episodes are often telecast in order to fill a half-hour program time slot.73 Reception Ratings Since its debut, Adventure Time has been a ratings success for Cartoon Network. In March 2013, it was reported that the show averages roughly 2 to 3 million viewers an episode.9 According to a 2012 report by Nielsen, the show consistently ranks first in its time slot among boys aged 2 to 14.5 The show premiered on April 5, 2010, and was watched by 2.5 million viewers.77 The episode was a ratings success; according to a press release by Cartoon Network, the episode's time slot saw triple-digit percentage increases from the previous year. The program was viewed by 1.661 million children aged 2–11—a 110 percent increase from the previous year's figures. It was watched by 837,000 children aged 9–14—an increase 239 percent on the previous year's figures.78 Between the second and sixth seasons, the show's ratings continued to grow; the second season premiere was watched by 2.001 million viewers; the third season debut was watched by 2.686 million, the fourth season premiere was watched by 2.655 million; the fifth season premiere was watched by 3.435 million; and the sixth season premiere was watched by 3.321 million.7980818283 The show's seventh season opener, however, took a substantial ratings tumble, being watched by only 1.07 million viewers.84 Critical reviews Adventure Time makes me wish I were a kid again, just so I could grow up to be as awesome as the kids who are currently watching Adventure Time will be. The show has received positive reviews from critics and has developed a strong following among children, teenagers, and adults; fans are drawn to Adventure Time because of "the show's silly humor, imaginative stories, and richly populated world".22Television critic Robert Lloyd, in an article for the LA Times, said the series was a good companion piece "to the network's then currently airing Chowder and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack."2 He complimented the setting and compared the show to the two previously mentioned series, saying each takes place "in a fantastical land peopled with strange, somewhat disturbing characters and has at its center a young male person or person-like thing making his way in that world with the help of unusual, not always reliable, mentors".2 He also said the show is "not unlike CN's earlier Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, about a boy and his imaginary friend, though darker and stranger and even less connected to the world as we know it".2 Lloyd also compared it to "the sort of cartoons they made when cartoons themselves were young and delighted in bringing all things to rubbery life".2 In a review of the third season, Mike LeChevallier of Slate, wrote that the series "scores relatively high marks for storytelling, artwork, music, voice acting, and realization with its neatly wrapped, 11-minute packages of multicolored awesomeness", awarding the third and fourth seasons a rating of four stars out of five.8687 He said the show "scarcely appears to be trying too hard to attract attention, yet it does just that".86 He also said, "the short-form format leaves some emotional substance to be desired", and that this was inevitable for a series with such short episodes.86 In a review of season four, LeChevallier complimented the show for "growing up" with its characters, and said "the show's dialogue is among the best of any current animated series".87 He concluded that the series has "strikingly few faults".87 The A.V. Club reviewer Zack Handlen called Adventure Time "a terrific show that fits beautifully in that gray area between kid and adult entertainment in a way that manages to satisfy both a desire for sophisticated (i.e., weird) writing and plain old silliness".88 He concluded that the show was "basically what would happen if you asked a bunch of 12-year-olds to make a cartoon, only it's the best possible version of that, like if all the 12-year-olds were super geniuses and some of them were Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and the Marx Brothers".88 Robert Mclaughlin of Den of Geek said Adventure Time "is the first cartoon in a long time that is pure imagination".89 He heavily complimented the show for "its non-reliance on continually referencing pop culture ... and the general outlook is positive and fun".89 Eric Kohn of IndieWire said the show "represents the progress of cartoon medium" in the current decade.90 Kohn said he enjoyed the way the show revels in "random, frequently adorable and effusive" aspects and "toys with an incredibly sad subtext".90 Entertainment Weekly named Adventure Time number 20 on its "The 25 Greatest Animated Series Ever" list.8591 In 2013, Entertainment Weekly''reviewer Darren Franich awarded the series an "A" and called it "a hybrid sci-fi/fantasy/horror/musical/fairy tale, with echoes of ''Calvin and Hobbes, Hayao Miyazaki, Final Fantasy, Richard Linklater, Where the Wild Things Are, and the music video you made with your high school garage band".92 Franich praised the series' "consistently inventive" plotlines and its "vivid landscape", as well as its continued maturation.92 Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker praised the show, likening it to "World of Warcraft as recapped by Carl Jung", and praised its unique approach to emotion, humor, and philosophy.93 Industry impact Heidi MacDonald of Slate has argued that Adventure Time‍ 's scouting of indie comic creators has led to an "Animation Gold Rush" in which major studios are actively seeking under-the-radar talent for their shows. She also pointed out that Adventure Time has influenced the tone of modern comics, noting, "Where once young cartoonists overwhelmingly produced gloomy masculine self-absorption and misanthropy in the tradition of Daniel Clowes or Chris Ware, these days many booths feature fantasy epics with colorful characters and invented worlds heavy on the talking animals. It shouldn’t be surprising that up-and-coming cartoonists are absorbing the Adventure Time aesthetic."94 Academic interest Adventure Time has attracted academic interest for its examination of gender and gender roles. Emma A. Jane said although the two main characters are male and that many episodes involve them engaging in violent acts to save princesses, "Finn and Jake are part of an expansive ensemble cast of characters who are anything but stereotypical and who populate a program which subverts many traditional gender-related paradigms".95 She said the show: features "roughly equal numbers of female and male characters in protagonist, antagonist, and minor roles"; includes characters with no fixed gender; uses "gendered 'design elements'" such as eyelashes and hair to illustrate character traits rather than gender; equally distributes traits regardless of gender; privileges found, adoptive families or extended families; frames gender in ways that suggest it is fluid; and features elements of queerand transgender sub-text.95 Carolyn Lesie agrees, saying, "despite having two male leads, Adventure Time is particularly strong when it comes to questioning and challenging gender stereotypes". She uses Princess Bubblegum, BMO, and Fionna and Cake as examples of characters who refuse to be readily categorized and genderized.96 Fandom Adventure Time fans cosplaying at Dragon Con 2014. Since its debut, Adventure Time has amassed a steadily growing fandom. The show is often described as having a cult following among teenagers and adults;4097 Eric Kohn of Indiewiresaid while it began with a cult following, the series has "started to look like one of the biggest television phenomenons of the decade".98 The show is popular at fan conventions, such as the San Diego-hosted Comic Con.98 Reporter Emma-Lee Moss said, "This year's 2014 Comic-Con schedule reflected Adventure Time‍ 's growing success, with several screenings, a dramatic reading with the show's voice talent and a special Adventure Time''Cosplay ball".99 The show is also popular with cosplayers, or performance artists who wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent characters from the ''Adventure Time universe. Moss wrote, "Looking into the crowd, it was clear that Finn's distinctive blue shirt and white hat were being mirrored by hundreds of Cosplayers, male and female".99 In an interview, Olivia Olson said, "Literally, anywhere you look, anywhere in your range, you're going to see at least two people dressed up like Finn. It's crazy."100 Awards and nominations Television Comics Reference https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_Time Category:Cartoonnetwork and Nick show